Siege State

The group forwent lunch, Darius citing it as being too risky to stop so near the site of an attack. There was always a high potential for other predators to be drawn in. So it was that the group, though they were a little bemused at how easy their encounter with the grass sprites had been, carried on riding, wary and alert.

Except for Tom.

Tom was marvelling at the increased sensitivity he had been granted by the uplift to Hunter-Gatherer. He could feel life and mana in smaller, more diffuse quantities, and with much greater detail and definition.

The sensory range of the skill extended further, and he could detect life and mana from both much further away, and in a much wider scope, before the feedback of the general environment muddied the data he was receiving and everything became blurry and indistinct.

He had never before been so absolutely certain that he had made the right choice with an uplift. Of course, Rosa, once she had finished with her own uplift, had noticed his elation, even in her melancholy state.

Any nearby monsters in the Grounds would have thought another attack was occurring.

Once she had congratulated Tom in her usual …expressive way, they had a brief discussion about her own uplift.

Ember Soul was the cornerstone of Rosa’s entire skillset. It allowed her to shoot lances of fire, and applied a burn over time effect to any targets struck by it. It was crucial for her damage dealing capabilities. But the most important aspect of the skill was the simplest: it allowed her to create fire.

The skill had a scaling, escalating mana cost, something quite rare except in elemental Ideals. Rosa could put a drop of mana into it to create a spark, a dribble into it to coat a limb, or a deluge to create a conflagration.

Her first option had been increased damage. Always a solid option, but Rosa, unlike Tom, already had damage in spades.

Her second option had been decreased mana cost and increased range. Rosa had enough active skills that mana management was always a concern for her, and this option was attractive.

Option number three was simply increased burn over time damage and duration.

Tom felt a little spoiled after hearing Rosa’s choices. Most of his uplifts seemed to give him two options for new effects for his skills. For Ember Soul’s latest uplift, Rosa had a choice between three different mechanical upgrades. It felt a little …plain, after what he was used to, though he was wise enough not to say so.

She ended up going with the second option. Ember Soul having decreased mana cost was welcome, but the benefit was subtly larger than the mundane description would imply.

Rosa used Ember Soul as a starter in most of her fights, and its ability to create fire, which she could then manipulate with her control skill, was invaluable. It was by far and away her most used skill. Any decrease in mana cost for it represented huge savings in mana for her, which accordingly made juggling her many active skills that much easier.

Rosa did admit to being a little disappointed with the options she’d been offered. She was begrudgingly inspired by Tom’s synergy between Hush and Survival of the Fittest, and wanted to try and create more synergies in her own skillset. She already had several, but Tom agreed that trying to set herself up for more was a good idea. There would be no more synergy created by Ember Soul, for the time being, anyhow.

They passed the rest of the day without incident. It became apparent, over the next several days, that Tom’s new sensitivity through Hunter-Gatherer, was extremely good at detecting beasts lying in wait for them.

After just over a week on the road, a little over halfway into the Grounds, they received another unexpected boon. Meri got uplifts for two of her familiar skills, and the resulting increase in ability from both combined, allowed her to pick up on creatures lying in wait for them with great precision too.

Between Tom’s life and mana sense, and the supernaturally good senses of Meri’s familiars, they could now reliably uncover any danger in advance. Not far enough so for the group to become comfortable, but enough so that they could at least relax a little.

It was a huge blessing. The constant tension of the first several days in the Grounds had been wearing on them.

The only person who didn’t seem to relax at all was Rosa. In fact, she became more and more tense the closer they drew to Horizon. They were roughly five days away now, and every morning when they woke Rosa seemed to have added another layer of worry, like a stone building up sediment.

Tom did his best to help take her mind off things, but ultimately, he knew that the only thing that would solve the issue was getting to Horizon as fast as possible. To that end, he turned all his skills to uncovering any potential beasts waiting to slow them, and to culling them as quickly as possible when he did. He never said anything about it explicitly to Rosa, nor did she acknowledge it, but he knew she appreciated it anyway.

Five days after Meri had gotten her uplifts, with five more days until Horizon, they ran into their first real problem in the grounds.

It was late in the afternoon, with the sun low in the sky, casting long, flickering shadows all across the road. The wind was stirring, in one of its playful moods Darius always talked about. The heat of the day was dropping, but not gone, and the wind cut back and forth across them in random bursts, once warm, now chilly, then warm again.

Tom found it annoying. He was constantly blinking as the wind stung his eyes, and Sus and Sol were not having an easy time gliding around above them. Their frustration was bleeding over to him through the bond.

Between one moment and the next, Tom found himself thrown clear of Sesame, tumbling towards the grass at the side of the road. Whilst airborne, he noted several things: Sesame’s confusion, Sus and Sol’s alarm, Tanya having been flattened to the ground, and Eli knocked free of his saddle, one foot twisted in a stirrup.

Pandemonium erupted. Darius began yelling about wind sprites, drawing his sword and waving it around as he tracked something in the sky. Meri looked like she was panicking, but Tom knew it was merely a combination of surprise, and a kind of vacancy in her expression, as she focused her attention through her bond with her hawk familiar.

Rosa was wreathed in flames, her teeth bared in a rictus as she wheeled Coal about with her legs, arms tensed to fire her skills at an attacker. Markus had drawn his sword, not that it would do him much good. The mane of his lion familiar began to shine brighter though, and Tom felt buffs run through him as he righted himself and stood.

Tom hadn’t noticed anything through Hunter-Gatherer. He was always exceedingly careful about checking for ambushes with it; the group was relying on him to give them warning of any attack.

Now, he looked upwards, scanning the sky. The wind still blew this way and that, stinging his eyes and making them water. He could barely see anything, much less a mostly ephemeral wind sprite.

Luckily, Hunter-Gatherer didn’t rely on sight. With his life and mana sense, he could ‘see’ the danger. Wind sprites, ten of them or more, swirling about in the air.

Their bodies were long and sinuous, like snakes that flowed through the sky, twisting and looping back on themselves. A quartet of tiny blue eyes near their marginally thicker tops were their only distinguishing feature.

Tom watched as they darted back and forth, jinking and swooping, some attacking Sus and Sol and Meri’s hawk, others preparing to dive at their party.

The sprites made noise, but it was incongruent and random. Grass swishing, beasts calling and roaring, people’s voices, horseshoes clopping, and a myriad more sounds all mashed together, cutting off at odd times and starting again halfway through. It was as if the sprites were simply grabbing noises from far away and using them in place of the sounds a normal creature makes.

Meri’s hawk was coating itself with wind and engaging the sprites directly, turning itself into an air-blade, charging into them and trying to disperse them.

The tactic met with some success. The hawk struck one of the sprites dead centre and dispersed it, but was then buffeted about by its fellows. Eventually, one of the sprites lashed out and struck the hawk on the wing, striking like a snake. A burst of compressed air accompanied it. The hawk cried out in pain, and immediately dove from the air to be subbed by Meri.

Sus and Sol were faring a little better. The two owls could not properly harm the sprites, as they had only had their screeches as offensive magic to use. The screeches dealt low damage and were only short range, but the sprites were just as unable to affect them in return.

This was due to their channelled ability, something that they’d rarely had use for. The owls could let out a series of soft hoots, and Silence mana would briefly revolve around their bodies.

Silence mana was completely ineffective versus physical attacks or defences, but against magical ones, it reigned supreme. Sprites, which were more magical than physical, and especially wind sprites, which at the hard end of that scale, were completely unable to breach the owls’ small, channelled silence shields. Attempting to do so resulted only in some portion of their bodies being sheared off and dispersed.

The sprites realised attacking the owls was futile and turned their attention to the softer targets below them. The party had mostly recovered from the initial shock of the attack, but were still suffering under the general strong winds the sprites had summoned for cover.

Only Meri, with her various familiars and Ideal of Senses, would have any idea where the sprites were going to attack. The others would not be able to pinpoint the ethereal creatures through the blustering winds.

The serpentine creatures dropped like bolts of lightning onto the group. Eli had only just recovered from being tangled in his saddle, righting himself, when he was struck again. He let out a pained gasp and tumbled onto the ground.

Tom rushed back towards the group. As he did, he cast Agony on one of the diving sprites. Pink lightning coursed down the length of its form, and it began to writhe, aborting its dive, its icy blues eyes flashing.

It was not enough. The rest of the sprites continued their reckless descent. He was not going to make it, and Agony could not come off cooldown fast enough.

Darius grabbed Eli, dragging him towards the rest of the group. He shouted at the others, calling them to him. Everyone reacted quickly to the healer’s orders, the ingrained instincts from training priming them to follow anything a healer instructed.

They gathered in close, their mounts pushing in as well. Darius threw up a shield to cover them from above. Several of the sprites impacted against it, and the shield showered healing light down upon them. Eli struggled to his feet from where Tanya had been ministering to him. Darius clapped the man on the shoulder, and more healing light surged from his body.

Rosa shot fire at the diving creatures, but it splashed harmlessly against walls of air, or were twisted apart by gusts. Coal reared up to lash out with smoking hooves, but the creatures were nothing if not nimble.

Tom cast Agony again, and another of the sprites discorporated. This time, a grey wind essence dropped from the sky and plinked off Darius’ shield. Eli began throwing skills from his Blades at the sprites, and they damaged them, but couldn’t kill them outright.

The situation was still dire. All it had taken was one solid strike to completely separate Tom from the rest of the group. Two decent strikes had incapacitated Eli. And there were still at least seven wind sprites left.

They were already figuring out the shield, spreading out in the air to try and swoop in below it. Darius could adjust it, but tilting it one way would just expose them the other. The shield looked like it wouldn’t hold for much longer, anyway.

Tom had to do something. He was the only one of them that had proper typeless damage. He cast Agony as quickly as he could, but at the rate he was going, they would be exposed to the elements before he’d killed even a single more sprite.

Sus and Sol threw themselves into the fray again. They could not harm the sprites, but they could at least run interference. Tom sent pride surging down the bond with them as they risked themselves to buy the group more time.

In a moment of inspiration, he cast Hush on another sprite. Typically, the skill would just restrict a creature from using any mana-based abilities, even sprites, but wind sprites were almost pure mana given sentience.

Sure enough, the second the skill hit the sprite, it simply vanished. Tom’s spirits lifted, and he began alternating between the two skills, trading them off to minimise the time between their cooldowns.

It wasn’t long until there were only three sprites left. They swirled about in the air, now making some kind of odd barking noises, but not attacking. They simply danced about, twisting and twining through each other. Sus and Sol were hanging around, low above the ground, ready to intercept any move they made.

Eventually, Darius dropped his shield to let it recover. The sprites made no move to attack.

“Fuck…” Eli said, echoing what they were all thinking. “Sign off!” Everyone signalled off as injury free.

“What do we do now?” Tanya asked. “Should we just …carry on? The sprites should leave sooner or later, right?”

Darius was frowning up at them as they danced. “These are not behaving right. They are knowing the odds. They should have left.”

Rosa mounted up. “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it. We must be going.”

Everyone began to remount their respective familiars, keeping a wary eye on the wind sprites. Meri resummoned her hawk, now fully healed once more. It joined Sus and Sol circling above them, warding off the remaining sprites.

“Wait,” Meri called, just as she got onto her wolf. Everyone stopped, some looking up. Meri had her head cocked, and her eyes looked far away.

“What is it?” Markus asked nervously, but Eli shushed him. Meri was concentrating through her familiars, and wouldn’t thank them for the distractions.

“Darius,” she said, at length. “What’s that sound?” She gestured to the sprites, still repeating the odd barking sound. It was like nothing Tom had ever heard, high, harsh and sharp.

“This is the wind sprites,” he explained. “They steal sounds and bring them with them. They use them to confuse their prey. The ghost foxes learned this from them, it is thought.” He listened to the barking for a few more moments, then nodded to himself.

“This sound, it is grass sharks. The sprites must be trying to scare us, perhaps.” Granny turned at a command from Darius, and everyone else stirred themselves to leave. They stopped, after barely a moment, when Meri spoke up again.

“I think they ‘caught’ that sound recently. I can hear it on the wind. The sprites aren’t trying to scare us. They’re using it to trick sharks into helping.”

No one said anything. Darius had impressed on them more than once which creature was at the top of the food chain in the Proving Grounds.

Grass sharks.

And there was blood in the water.